Real in what sense? Are they legitimate investments? Sure. Are they legitimate sources of money? Not yet, IMO. If crypto's keep growing, eventually the government will have to make a decision...accept them as currency or outlaw them. They simply will not be able to ignore the fact that lots of people are running their entire lives through crypto's and not paying the IRS any taxes. If people get paid in crypto's, buy cars, gas, food, smartphones, etc...than officially they make no money - so do not have to pay taxes. If everyone did this, the government would have no money. So either the government will accept them (assuming they can find a way to monitor them - which kind of defeats one of the big benefits of crypto's). Or they will have to outlaw them. My guess is it will be the latter. But who knows?
